I. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to gaming machines. More particularly, the present invention relates to methods and apparatus for providing a bonus award for using a player-tracking account associated with a gaming establishment.
II. Background
There are a wide variety of associated devices that can be connected to a gaming machine such as a slot machine or video poker machine. Some examples of these devices are player tracking units, lights, ticket printers, card readers, speakers, bill validators, ticket readers, coin acceptors, display panels, key pads, coin hoppers and button pads. Many of these devices are built into the gaming machine or components associated with the gaming machine such as a top box which usually sits on top of the gaming machine. In addition, many of these devices can be integrated into a player tracking unit.
Typically, utilizing a master gaming controller, the gaming machine controls various combinations of devices that allow a player to play a game on the gaming machine and also encourage game play on the gaming machine. For example, a game played on a gaming machine usually requires a player to input money or indicia of credit into the gaming machine, indicate a wager amount, and initiate a game play. These steps require the gaming machine to control input devices, including bill validators and coin acceptors, to accept money into the gaming machine and recognize user inputs from devices, including touch screens and button pads, to determine the wager amount and initiate game play.
After game play has been initiated, the gaming machine determines a game outcome, presents the game outcome to the player and may dispense an award of some type depending on the outcome of the game. A game outcome presentation may utilize many different visual and audio components such as flashing lights, music, sounds and graphics. The visual and audio components of the game outcome presentation may be used to draw a player's attention to various game features and to heighten the player's interest in additional game play. Maintaining a game player's interest in game play, such as on a gaming machine or during other gaming activities, is an important consideration for an operator of a gaming establishment.
One related method of maintaining a game player's interest in game play are player tracking programs which are offered at various casinos. Player tracking programs provide rewards, or “comps,” to players that typically correspond to the player's level of patronage (e.g., to the player's playing frequency and/or total amount of game plays at a given casino). Player tracking rewards may be free meals, free lodging and/or free entertainment. These rewards may help to sustain a game player's interest in additional game play during a visit to a gaming establishment and may entice a player to visit a gaming establishment to partake in various gaming activities.
In general, player tracking programs may be applied to any game of chance offered at a gaming establishment. In particular, player tracking programs are very popular with players of mechanical slot gaming machines and video slot gaming machines. In a gaming machine, a player tracking program is implemented using a player tracking unit installed in the gaming machine and in communication with a remote player tracking server. Player tracking units are usually manufactured as an after-market device separate from the gaming machine. Many different companies manufacture player tracking units as part of player tracking/accounting systems. These player tracking/accounting systems are used in most casinos. Most casinos utilize only one type of player tracking system (i.e. from one manufacturer) while the type of player tracking system varies from casino to casino.
Typically, when a game player wants to play a game on a gaming machine and utilize the player tracking services available through the player tracking unit, a game player inserts a player tracking card, such as a magnetic striped card, into a card reader located on a player tracking unit of a gaming machine. After the magnetic striped card has been so inserted, the player tracking unit may detect this event and receive certain identification information contained on the card. For example, a player's name, address, and player tracking account number encoded on the magnetic striped card, may be received by the player tracking unit. In general, a player must provide identification information of some type to utilize player tracking services available on a gaming machine. For current player tracking programs, the most common approach for providing identification information is to issue a magnetic-striped card storing the necessary identification information to each player that wishes to participate in a given player tracking program.
During game play on the gaming machine, the player tracking unit may poll the gaming machine for game play information such as how much money the player has wagered on each game, the time when each game was initiated, and the location of the gaming machine. The game play information is sent by the player tracking unit to a player tracking server. While a player tracking card is inserted in the card reader, the player tracking server may use the game play information provided by the player tracking unit to generate player tracking points and add the points to a player tracking account identified by the player tracking card. The player tracking points generated by the player tracking server are stored in a memory of some type on the player tracking server.
Player tracking cards and player tracking programs have become a de facto marketing method at casinos. A casino can obtain valuable marketing information from player tracking programs and provide loyalty incentives to players. These loyalty incentives provide a way to maintain a player's interest in playing games at a particular casino once a player has initiated game play with a player tracking card.
Accordingly, it is desirable to encourage players to initiate game play by using their player tracking cards. Once the players initiate game play, the traditional player tracking programs can be used even more effectively to maintain player interest in the games, and to provide gaming establishments with valuable information that allows them to better serve their players.